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The leaders of Muslim community and religious organizations signed a joint document on December 11, 2017 - The Social Concept of Muslims in Ukraine. At a solemn meeting, representatives of Islamic organizations spoke about the history of this document.

The ruins of the old church in the district center of Rozhische in Volyn have become the subject of controversy between the Protestants and the Orthodox. The temple was built in the nineteenth century by the Baptists, “the Soviets” expropriated and placed manufacturing plants in the church.

The UOC’s practice of amending the charters of its organizations in accord with Russian rather than Ukrainian law casts a doubtful light on current statements about the supposed autonomy or even autocephaly of the UOC.

Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

Patriarch of the UOC-KP Filaret has asked the Russian Orthodox Church for forgoveness in a letter addressed to the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. This is stated in a message on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“The Council of Bishops heard a written appeal by Filaret to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on November 16, 2017,” the message of the Russian Orthodox Church says.

“The letter contains a request for the restoration of Eucharistic and prayerful communication with Christians in the Ukrainian church schism and the abolition of all decisions, including threats of excommunication ... for the sake of the achievement God -commanded peace between the conscientious Orthodox Christians and the reconciliation between peoples.”

The letter ends with the words: “I ask forgiveness for all that I have sinned in word, deed and with all my feelings, and sincerely forgive everybody from pure heart.”

“The council is pleased to hear the appeal as a step towards overcoming the split and restoring ecclesial communion from those who once fell seceded from unity with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” the statement reads.

“After the twenty-five grievous years of strife, violence, mutual hostility, insults and disadvantages that arose in Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society as a result of the split, finally, there is an opportunity to stand on the path of restoration of unity,” the ROC members summed up.

For further negotiations with Patriarch Filaret, the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church set up a commission consisting of:

After this message was shared by the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church, the reaction of the UOC-KP came soon.

Tomorrow, on December 1, at 14-00, Patriarch Filaret will give a press conference for the media at his residence (36 Pushkinskaya str.). This was reported by Archbishop Evrostratiy (Zorya) of the UOC-KP on his Facebook page. He added: “I will briefly note: the only dialogue that the Patriarch and the UOC-KP desire and are willing to conduct with the Russian Orthodox Church – a dialogue on the recognition of autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church by Moscow. There can be no question of any repentance before the Russian Orthodox Church or even the return to its fold.”